C# 4.0 Optional Parameters - How to Specify Optional Parameter of Type "Guid" ?

Question

Hi Guys,

Here's my method:

public void SomeQuery(string email = "", Guid userId = Guid.Empty)
{
   // do some query
}

userId is giving me an error as it must be a compile-time constant, which i understand. But even when i declare a const:

private const emptyGuid = Guid.Empty;

then change the method signature to:

public void SomeQuery(string email = "", Guid userId = emptyGuid)
{
   // do some query
}

still no love.

What am i missing?

Answer 1

Wouldn't a better solution be to overload the method with a version that doesn't require the Guid? This would solve the issue, and would be a better design in my opinion. Of course, there may be other constraints that I am unaware of necessitating this design.

Answer 2

Have you tried setting it to a new instance of Guid ala:

public void SomeQuery(string email = "", Guid userId = new Guid())
{
   // do some query
}

Should do the trick.